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UK Falls In Global Happiness Ranking, With Mental Health A Covid `Casualty´
Daily Mail
The UK has fallen five places on a global list ranking countries by happiness, as it grapples with the mental health ramifications of the coronavirus pandemic.
The annual World Happiness Report found no overall global decline in people’s perceptions of their wellbeing in a survey of 156 countries.
However, the UK fell to 18th place in the global list and experienced one of the larger drops in happiness compared to before the pandemic.
Researchers said the measure for “life evaluation” in the UK fell from 7.16 in 2019 to 6.80 in 2020 – a statistically significant change.
There were 26 countries with significant increases and 20 with decreases in life evaluation measures, while 42 countries showed a significantly higher frequency of negative emotions and there were nine where this was significantly less frequently reported.
The report authors said the modest changes to the overall rankings reflect both the global nature of the pandemic and a “widely-shared resilience”.